Arace: Findlay man traces ties to Tigers’ Ty Cobb
From Michael Arace at the Columbus Dispatch on May 9, 2020, on SABR member Tom Drake:
The Society of American Baseball Research is at the root of “SABRmetrics” which, in another century, was the term used to describe advanced metrics in baseball. SABR deserves its reputation ― or, depending on your perspective, notoriety ― as a trailblazer in the mathematical expansion of how we view sports. SABR helped start the numbers war, which led to WAR.
Yet, since its founding in Cooperstown in 1971, SABR has been as much flesh and blood as cold numbers. For those who love the game and its history ― and baseball has the best history ― SABR membership is as precious as a library card. It lays open another world.
“It really is an incredible organization,” said Tom Drake, 67, a lawyer from Findlay and a longtime SABR member.
Drake recently spent two years researching and writing about a left fielder for the 1911 Detroit Tigers. His piece was published in one of SABR’s regularly issued compendiums: “Whales, Terriers and Terrapins: The Federal League 1914-15.” It is a 465-page history of the league that challenged Major League Baseball’s antitrust status, and failed.
Read the full article here: https://www.dispatch.com/sports/20200509/michael-arace–findlay-man-traces-ties-to-tigers-irascible-ty?utm_source=SFMC
Originally published: May 11, 2020. Last Updated: May 11, 2020.